A culT�p/Zq2��e������U��wQ�����������|����a7`��b�]��V�fP§�,SFlA*JP�.'��S�4T�g���0��@_e�� ��p������W*�6�b��jJb�$â`����3��bI!�:������䪏�R�qE5�5^N1��-#�G�&XOyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has approved the appointment of 160 new Supervisory Councilors and Special Assistants across all 33 local government areas in the state. The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Otunba Ademola Ojo, disclosed this to newsmen in Ibadan on Tuesday, December 24. The Commissioner, who also disclosed that the list, which comprised 93 Supervisory Councilors and 67 Special Assistants, includes persons living with disabilities (PLWD), marked a significant step towards social inclusion in governance. Otunba Ojo, otherwise called ‘Ijaya,’ stated that the 33 Local Government Executive Chairmen have also been directed to immediately swear in the new appointees. He added that the decision aligns with the governor’s promise to ensure that all segments of society have a voice in decision-making processes under the present administration in the state. According to the Commissioner, the new appointees were selected based on merit, competence, and their capacity to contribute to the Makinde administration’s agenda of sustainable development, especially at the grassroots. He explained that the appointments aim to strengthen the governance framework at the local government level to ensure effective service delivery to the people of Oyo State. “This administration is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of their physical abilities or background, is represented in governance, and this is so because the present administration believes in the talents and potential of all individuals, including persons living with disabilities,” he said. The Commissioner also emphasised the need for the newly appointed officials to prioritise the welfare of their local communities while urging them to work closely with local stakeholders to address pressing issues and deliver impactful projects. READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNEIf the Covid era marked a boom time for digital health companies, 2024 was the reckoning. In a year that saw the Nasdaq jump 32%, surpassing 20,000 for the first time this month, health tech providers largely suffered. Of 39 public digital health companies analyzed by CNBC, roughly two-thirds are down for the year. Others are now out of business. There were some breakout stars, like Hims & Hers Health , which was buoyed by the success of its popular new weight loss offering and its position in the GLP-1 craze. But that was an exception. While there were some company-specific challenges in the industry, overall it was a “year of inflection,” according to Scott Schoenhaus, an analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets covering health-care IT companies. Business models that appeared poised to break out during the pandemic haven’t all worked as planned, and companies have had to refocus on profitability and a more muted growth environment. “The pandemic was a huge pull forward in demand, and we’re facing those tough, challenging comps,” Schoenhaus told CNBC in an interview. “Growth clearly slowed for most of my names, and I think employers, payers, providers and even pharma are more selective and more discerning on digital health companies that they partnered with.” In 2021, digital health startups raised $29.1 billion, blowing past all previous funding records, according to a report from Rock Health . Almost two dozen digital health companies went public through an initial public offering or special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that year, up from the previous record of eight in 2020. Money was pouring into themes that played into remote work and remote health as investors looked for growth with interest rates stuck near zero. But as the worst waves of the pandemic subsided, so did the insatiable demand for new digital health tools. It’s been a rude awakening for the sector. “What we’re still going through is an understanding of the best ways to address digital health needs and capabilities, and the push and pull of the current business models and how successful they may be,” Michael Cherny , an analyst at Leerink Partners, told CNBC. “We’re in a settling out period post Covid.” Progyny , which offers benefits solutions for fertility and family planning, is down more than 60% year to date. Teladoc Health , which once dominated the virtual-care space, has dropped 58% and is 96% off its 2021 high. When Teladoc acquired Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion . Teladoc’s market cap now sits at under $1.6 billion. GoodRx , which offers price transparency tools for medications, is down 33% year to date. Schoenhaus says many companies’ estimates were too high this year. Progyny cut its full-year revenue guidance in every earnings report in 2024. In February, Progyny was predicting $1.29 billion to $1.32 billion in annual revenue. By November, the range was down to $1.14 billion to $1.15 billion. GoodRx also repeatedly slashed its full-year guidance for 2024. What was $800 million to $810 million in May shrank to $794 million by the November . In Teladoc’s first-quarter report , the company said it expected full-year revenue of $2.64 billion to $2.74 billion. The company withdrew its outlook in its second quarter, and reported consecutive year-over year declines. “This has been a year of coming to terms with the growth outlook for many of my companies, and so I think we can finally look at 2025 as maybe a better year in terms of the setups,” Schoenhaus said. While overzealous forecasting tells part of the digital health story this year, there were some notable stumbles at particular companies. Dexcom , which makes devices for diabetes and glucose management, is down more than 35% year to date. The stock tumbled more than 40% in July — its steepest decline ever — after the company reported disappointing second-quarter results and issued weak full-year guidance. CEO Kevin Sayer attributed the challenges to a restructuring of the sales team, fewer new customers than expected and lower revenue per user. Following the report, JPMorgan Chase analysts marveled at “the magnitude of the downside” and the fact that it “appears to mostly be self-inflicted.” Genetic testing company 23andMe had a particularly rough year. The company went public via a SPAC in 2021, valuing the business at $3.5 billion, after its at-home DNA testing kits skyrocketed in popularity. The company is now worth less than $100 million and CEO Anne Wojcicki is trying to keep it afloat. In September, all seven independent directors resigned from 23andMe’s board, citing disagreements with Wojcicki about the “strategic direction for the company.” Two months later, 23andMe said it planned to cut 40% of its workforce and shutter its therapeutics business as part of a restructuring plan. Wojcicki has repeatedly said she intends to take 23andMe private. The stock is down more than 80% year to date. Digital health's bright spots Investors in Hims & Hers had a much better year. Shares of the direct-to-consumer marketplace are up more than 200% year to date, pushing the company’s market cap to $6 billion, thanks to soaring demand for GLP-1s. Hims & Hers began prescribing compounded semaglutide through its platform in May after launching a new weight loss program late last year. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk ’s blockbuster medications Ozempic and Wegovy, which can cost around $1,000 a month without insurance. Compounded semaglutide is a cheaper, custom-made alternative to the brand drugs and can be produced when the brand-name treatments are in shortage . Hims & Hers will likely have to contend with dynamic supply and regulatory environments next year, but even before adding compounded GLP-1s to its portfolio, the company said in its February earnings call that it expects its weight loss program to bring in more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2025. Doximity , a digital platform for medical professionals, also had a strong 2024, with its stock price more than doubling. The company’s platform, which for years has been likened to a LinkedIn for doctors , allows clinicians to stay current on medical news, manage paperwork, find referrals and carry out telehealth appointments with patients. Doximity primarily generates revenue through its hiring solutions, telehealth tools and marketing offerings for clients like pharmaceutical companies. Leerink’s Cherny said Doximity’s success can be attributed to its lean operating model, as well as the “differentiated mousetrap” it’s created because of its reach into the physician network. “DOCS is a rare company in healthcare IT as it is already profitable, generates strong incremental margins, and is a steady grower,” Leerink analysts, including Cherny, wrote in a November note. The firm raised its price target on the stock to $60 from $35. Another standout this year was Oscar Health , the tech-enabled insurance company co-founded by Thrive Capital Management’s Joshua Kushner. Its shares are up nearly 50% year to date. The company supports roughly 1.65 million members and plans to expand to around 4 million by 2027. Oscar showed strong revenue growth in its third-quarter report in November. Sales climbed 68% from a year earlier to $2.4 billion. Additionally, two digital health companies, Waystar and Tempus AI , took the leap and went public in 2024. The IPO market has been largely dormant since late 2021, when soaring inflation and rising interest rates pushed investors out of risk. Few technology companies have gone public since then, and no digital health companies held IPOs in 2023, according to a report from Rock Health. Waystar, a health-care payment software vendor, has seen its stock jump to $36.93 from its IPO price of $21.50 in June. Tempus, a precision medicine company, hasn’t fared as well. It’s stock has slipped to $34.91 from its IPO price of $37 , also in June. “Hopefully, the valuations are more supportive of opportunities for other companies that have been lingering in the background as private companies for the last several years.” Schoenhaus said. Out with the old Several digital health companies exited the public markets entirely this year. Cue Health , which made Covid tests and counted Google as an early customer , and Better Therapeutics, which used digital therapeutics to treat cardiometabolic conditions, both shuttered operations and delisted from the Nasdaq. Revenue cycle management company R1 RCM was acquired by TowerBrook Capital Partners and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in an $8.9 billion deal. Similarly, Altaris bought Sharecare , which runs a virtual health platform, for roughly $540 million. Commure, a private company that offers tools for simplifying clinicians’ workflows, acquired medical AI scribing company Augmedix for about $139 million. “There was a lot of competition that entered the marketplace during the pandemic years, and we’ve seen some of that being flushed out of the markets, which is a good thing,” Schoenhaus said. Cherny said the sector is adjusting to a post-pandemic period, and digital health companies are figuring out their role. “We’re still cycling through what could be almost termed digital health 1.1 business models,” he said. “It’s great to say we do things digitally, but it only matters if it has some approach toward impacting the ‘triple aim’ of health care: better care, more convenient, lower cost.”

Alignment is an often overlooked fundamental, says Top 100 Teacher Mike Malizia. Getty Images I was fortunate to attend GOLF’s annual Top 100 Teachers Summit at Cabot Citrus Farms earlier this month, and what a treat it was to pick the brains of some of the game’s best instruction minds for two days. In addition to the numerous presentations being delivered onsite, my colleagues and I had the chance to pull some teachers aside during quiet moments and pose some of our most burning instruction related-questions. One query I had for Top 100 Teacher Mike Malizia: What’s the one thing that many of your students tend to struggle with the most? His answer was immediate: alignment . This piqued my interest because I feel as though I’m never aligned where I think I am. And according to Malizia, I’m not alone. But laying down alignment sticks during a practice session on the range isn’t the cure you’d think it would be. “You can’t practice alignment on the driving range because the driving range is a square box,” Malizia told me. “Out on the golf course you have shapes, you have tees aimed one way, fairways aimed another. Greens are angled certain ways. So alignment is probably one of the most important things in golf, and one of the things that people never ever practice. Alignment is huge.” If you really want to nail down your alignment, Malizia says, you need to practice your technique during a round — not before or after one. “Here’s what I want you to do,” Malizia said. “Go out and play nine holes by yourself late in the day. I want you to use an alignment stick on every shot.” According to Malizia, the students who try this advice are often surprised by how quickly it helps them. “[Afterward] they go, ‘Yeah, I shot 38 today, unreal!'” Malizia said. “And I go, yeah, because your misses now are not that far off.” “Alignment is one of the most important things,” he continued. “But it’s also one of the most overlooked, and not practiced.” If you’re looking for a simple tip to get your game in shape for 2025, nailing down your alignment is an surefire way to start generating lower scores. Give Malizia’s tip a try, and start your next golf year off on the right foot. Latest In Instruction Golf.com Editor As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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The 100th anniversary of the Myanmar Engineering Education and opening ceremony of the Engineering Education and Technology Forum was held at Naypyitaw State Polytechnic University yesterday. At the event, Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Myo Thein Kyaw, Myanmar Engineering Education 100th Anniversary Ceremony Organizing Committee Chair, Union Minister for Construction U Myo Thant, penal of patron member of the Myanmar Engineering Council and Deputy Minister for Science and Technology (Retired) Dr Aung Kyaw Myat, chair of the Myanmar Engineering Council, and the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP) made keynote speeches. FEIAP General Secretary Dr Tan Yean Chin, FEIAP Education Committee Chairman Professor Dr Chuah Hean Teik and the chairperson of the Committee on Engineering for Innovative Technologies (CEIT), and World Federation of Engineering Organization (WFEO) Professor Dr Norlida Buniyamin made speeches through video clips. The panel session was held under the theme “Engineering skills towards brighter future of Myanmar”, and the forum parallel session featured five topics: The Future of Engineering Education, The Role of Engineers in Myanmar’s Sustainable Development, Green Energy to Support Energy Security, Most Advanced Technology Trends and Digital Transformation towards the National Development. Moreover, the engineering festival, project show and product show, hackathon, e-sport, quiz and engineering battle are also included in the event for students. — MNA/KTZH

Harmonizing cultures: African fusion music innovatorsOyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has approved the appointment of 160 new Supervisory Councilors and Special Assistants across all 33 local government areas in the state. The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Otunba Ademola Ojo, disclosed this to newsmen in Ibadan on Tuesday, December 24. The Commissioner, who also disclosed that the list, which comprised 93 Supervisory Councilors and 67 Special Assistants, includes persons living with disabilities (PLWD), marked a significant step towards social inclusion in governance. Otunba Ojo, otherwise called ‘Ijaya,’ stated that the 33 Local Government Executive Chairmen have also been directed to immediately swear in the new appointees. He added that the decision aligns with the governor’s promise to ensure that all segments of society have a voice in decision-making processes under the present administration in the state. According to the Commissioner, the new appointees were selected based on merit, competence, and their capacity to contribute to the Makinde administration’s agenda of sustainable development, especially at the grassroots. He explained that the appointments aim to strengthen the governance framework at the local government level to ensure effective service delivery to the people of Oyo State. “This administration is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of their physical abilities or background, is represented in governance, and this is so because the present administration believes in the talents and potential of all individuals, including persons living with disabilities,” he said. The Commissioner also emphasised the need for the newly appointed officials to prioritise the welfare of their local communities while urging them to work closely with local stakeholders to address pressing issues and deliver impactful projects. READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Visitors heading to Yosemite National Park will need to take extra precautions over the next few days after officials forecast extreme weather from an incoming winter storm. The park and surrounding area could see up to 18 inches of snow over the weekend alongside strong winds of up to 50mph and heavy rain. The National Parks Service advises against hiking in Yosemite during winter storms due to unpredictable, dangerous conditions. Weather can quickly change in the Yosemite valley, leaving even the most experienced trekkers unprepared and vulnerable. Unpredictable and fearsome, harsh winter storms can often come out of the blue, so it’s imperative to take extra precautions when heading into the wilderness during the winter season. If you’re thinking of hiking in the coldest months you’ll want to be wearing the right clothes. Make sure to be ready with a warm winter jacket like the Columbia Si Down parka. Rated as , the Si Down parka boasts 650-fill duck-down insulation to keep you toasty. Its waterproof outer is an essential component of any good winder jacket. You can’t stay warm without keeping dry, so make sure you’re clothing is well-equipped to ward off heavy rain. Layering is highly recommended. Wearing a base layer and mid layer will not only keep you warm but give you something to wear should conditions improve and you need to cool down. Wearing the right footwear is a non-negotiable for any hike, let alone in treacherous winter conditions. Terrain often becomes unpredictable in the colder months, with heavy rain and even snowfall affecting the trails. If you're heading out in extreme conditions, you’ll need a pair with ample traction and enough protection to keep your feet warm and dry when conditions take a turn for the worse. , the Scarpa Manta Techs fulfill all these criteria. Their thick, durable lugs dig into uneven surfaces for stability while gor-tex insulated comfort membrane linings keep your feet toasty, and thick waterproof outers battle off the elements. If you’re likely to encounter thick snow and ice, consider a crampon-compatible pair like the . Similarly sturdy winter boots, the Mescalito TRK Pros can be fitted with metal crampons for improved traction on snowy and icy trails. When planning a winter hike, prepare for the worst with enough food to sustain you in the short term. Light, portable snacks like contain enough calories to keep you sustained without taking up too much space. Basic medical supplies like bandages and antiseptic ointments can also be extremely useful. Slippery trails and strong winds can easily cause injury, so make sure you’re stocked with the basics. Should your situation become perilous, the first thing to do is call for help. The best way to do this is with a satellite communicator. Not reliant on cell signal, satellite communicators like the Garmin InReach can send SOS signals from remote backcountry locations regardless of the weather. Garmin’s InReach SOS service alone has in the past decade. Just two months ago, it . If you do end up needing rescue, the best way to stay warm is to seek shelter. Locate a protected area, ideally away from wind and below the tree cover to wait out the storm. Make-shift shelters can be built from nearby branches. For more information on how to have a safe winter hike, check out .Man United Fans Unhappy With Something Rasmus Hojlund ‘Constantly’ Did vs Wolves